Artist Detail

Jan Christiaan Poortenaar (1886-1958)

Jan Christiaan Poortenaar ( Amsterdam , 23 July 1886 – Naarden , 15 October 1958 ) was a Dutch graphic artist , graphic designer , painter , watercolourist , draftsman , engraver , lithographer , maker of woodcuts, illustrator , author and publisher . He was self-taught but received lessons from Piet van Wijngaerdt and Willem Witsen. On his 20th birthday he received a Royal Grant for painting, and then followed exhibitions in Brussels and London. From 1914 to 1922 Poortenaar lived in London, where he made his first big etchings, Trafalgar Square, and Waterloo Bridge. In 1915 he won the silver medal at the International Exhibition in San Francisco .

Poortenaar traveled extensively, accompanied by his wife Geertruida Vladeracken (1880-1947) a renowned singer, composer and artist. He accompanied his wife on the piano on a journey through the former Dutch East Indies between 1922 and 1924.

He worked in Amsterdam, Belgium and London until 1922, the Dutch East Indies until 1924, Bennekom (Ede), Amsterdam until 1939 and Naarden from 1939 to 1958.

He made landscapes, oriental scenes, portraits, cityscapes, flowers, still lifes, and bookplates . He wrote books with his own illustrations, translated books and illustrated other books and magazine articles.

He was a member of Arti et Amicitiae (Amsterdam) and the Hague Art Circle .